Wiley Accounting
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Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

Not a lot of wealth-sharing at YouTube

Description: There are a few YouTube stars who are making it rich, like the gamer Daniel Middleton who raked in about $16.5 million in the previous year. But most contributors are far away from big riches. Professor Mathias Bartl from Germany determined that reaching over a million views a month in the most viewed channels on YouTube would bring in $16,000 (or less) per year in ad revenue. Things are similar over at Spotify and Apple Music, where 1% of the songs count for over 85% of the streaming. In other words, if you are a superstar, you’re doing just fine.

1) Are you a regular watcher on YouTube? Which content producers are your favourites? Did any of them make the Forbes list discussed in the article?

2) What surprised you about this article?

3) On page 466 of Wiley’s Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems , you can read about the phenomenon of click fraud. If you were charged with preventing click fraud for a service like YouTube or Spotify, what controls could you put in place to prevent or detect the problem?